SPRING TRAINING AT THE FINCA VIGÃA
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CAST OF CHARACTERS
Ernest Hemingway , Americanwriter
H ugh Casey and Kirby Higbe , pitchers for the Brooklyn Dodgers
Martha Gellhorn , Hemingwayâs wife, also a writer
Manuel , Hemingwayâs right hand man
Two Men in the darkness
SETTINGS
TheFincaVigÃa,thehomeofErnestHemingwayandMarthaGellhorn,outsideHavana,Cuba,in 1941 .
The Floridita, a bar inHavana.
PRODUCTION NOTES
Thetimeofyearisearlyspring.TheBrooklynDodgersbaseball team is in training for the upcoming major league season andtwo of their players, pitchers Hugh Casey and Kirby Higbe, havebecome companions of the forty-two-year-old author of The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms , among otherbooks.
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SCENE ONE
It is just after ten thirty p.m. whenCASEY andHIGBE,ledby HEMINGWAY, storm into the house through the front porchdoor and mill about in the livingroom likelions or tigers driven by the lash of a whip intoa cage. Each of them stalks the roomwarily for a long time, as if theyâeven Ernestâ had never been in it before. They are all more than slightlyinebriated.
CASEY
So this is your domain, hey, Ernie? Where you do yourdrinking.
HIGBE
Call him Ernest, Case. He told us he donât like people callinâ him Ernie.
HEMINGWAY
Wherever I am is where I drink. Iâm here now.
HIGBE
So are we. Weâre all three of us here in Cuba.
CASEY
Thatâs right. Higbeâs right. Whatâre yougonnadoaboutit,Ernesto?
HEMINGWAY
Might I offer you gentleman a libation?
HIGBE
I thought there was only Cuban women in Cuba.
HEMINGWAY
Whatâs he talkinâ about?
CASEY
Whatâre you talkinâ about, Ernesto?
HEMINGWAY
Iâm offering you bums a beverage.
CASEY
Hell, yes, Hem, weâll take you up on that offer.
HIGBE
Up and up!
hemingway goes to his wet bar and pours whiskey into glasses for each of them, hands out the drinks
HEMINGWAY
The regulars at the Havana Gun and Country Club surelyappreciate your patronage, boys, but Iâm not certain theyâve gotenough doves to last you until the end of springtraining.
HIGBE
Us country boys are sure as shit some sharpshootinâ sons of bitches, you bet.
HEMINGWAY
Hig, I wish I had eagle eyes like you, but I inherited my eyesfrom mymother.Iwouldâvebeenbetteroffhavinghadaneaglefora motherthantheoneIhave.Hercharacterisasfuckedupasher eyesight.
HIGBE and CASEY can sense HEM INGWAY âs mood shift at the mentionof his mother. They all drinkharder.
HEMINGWAY
Come on, Case, letâs put on thegloves.
HEMINGWAY takes down two pairs of boxing gloves hanging by their laces from a hook in one corner of the room, tosses a pair to CASEY. As the men are pulling on and lacing up the gloves, assisted by HIGBE, Hemingwayâs wife, MARTHA GELLHORN, enters. Sheâs a dirty blonde, Barbara Stanwyck type, tough and sassy, not terrifically beautiful but attractive and smarter than the men, including her husband, who knows this and hates her because of it. She swiftly and accurately appraises the scene.
GELLHORN
Goodevening,children.IâllbedamnedifI canât hearthethirdsheet fluttering in thewind.
CASEY
Eveninâ, Missus Hemingway.
HIGBE
Eveninâ, missus.
HEMINGWAY
You can dispense with the formality, boys. Señorita Gellhorn donât cotton to the marital terminology. Martha, my esteemedopponent isnoneotherthan Mr. Hugh Casey, presentlyapitcherforthe Brooklyn Dodgers. Serving as second for both of us is Mr. Kirby Higbe,alsooftheBrooklynteam,andnotedauthorofwhathas been appropriately dubbed the high, hardone.
HIGBE
Donât listentohim,missusâImean maâam. I ainât noauthor. Iâm a pitcher, like Case. Itâs what they call my numerouno.
GELLHORN
Your Spanishisverygood, Mr. Higbe.But donât worry, Ilistenedto Mr. Hemingstein once, and that wasenough.
CASEY
I know what you mean. Olâ Ern knows how to convince peoplein a
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